Connecting the DoTs: A Summoner Guide

[Sleigh]

You certainly can but it will be useless padding since you only need to destroy one leg. I secretly Tri-D one of the legs when I am in trance+pot and manually refresh the DoTs on the leg the party is hitting. Can't have those melees destroying me

So if you hurt the other leg, it regains all its HP in the next phase? Dang.

[ShinryuReishiki]

Kinda a non-SMN question but one most relevant to SMNs - can you multi-DoT in p1 of A4 on both legs without it being complete milking? Haven't gone back in and I won't be for a couple days, but I'm pretty curious about that.

Any damage done the second leg gets reset after the first dies, so it's essentially just padding. I take the subtle approach of placing my Shadowflare in the middle; it just barely hits both without taking away any time/DPS from the first leg.

[Garash]

I've made a spreadsheet for caster gear stats diff
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

[Akariel]

Some semi-random questions:

1. Do you guys use Painflare on single targets? (e.g. to help burst something down)? Do you use it just to quickly get into trance (apart from its accepted use in opening rotation)? I find myself doing both every so often and wondering if I should exercise more self-restraint.

2. What do you guys do with adds that die quite fast from others' dps but need to be burst down? (e.g. butterflies in Ravana, adds in A4). In Ravana, I rarely get a chance to AoE them as people start hitting them as they spawn and nowhere near the boss or each other. I find myself at a loss sometimes if I should bother putting any DoTs on them, Ruin them, PF a single addt, or ignore the blue altogether and just settle for the Moon @.@). I think I even used DF on them instead of Ravana sometimes >_<

[Akariel]

(con't)

3. I try to keep my AF stacks in three, but there are always times when I needed to use an extra AF (or just screwed up) and then got left with 1 stack or 2 stacks. Do you guys let some of the Aethertrail stack(s) fall off to come back up with a clean set of 3?

[Minorinz]

Some semi-random questions:

1. Do you guys use Painflare on single targets? (e.g. to help burst something down)? Do you use it just to quickly get into trance (apart from its accepted use in opening rotation)? I find myself doing both every so often and wondering if I should exercise more self-restraint.

Never use painflare on a single target unless the single target is dying and you could phase into dread stance to deathflare it. Fester should be the only way you should be building AA stacks and with that you are creating a momentum and a smooth flow of your rotation on a single target. How and why? For maximum dps output and efficiency, when you rush a dreadwyrm stance you are missing out on CDs such as tridisaster, 1 or 2 stacks of aetherflow as well as having your other ogcd up but having to pause them because activating them during dreadwyrm stance is a dps loss such as spur, rouse or swiftcast+shadowflare. You need to at least have casted 4x ruin 3s during dread and it's very difficult for it go smooth during the activation of many gcds at once.

2. What do you guys do with adds that die quite fast from others' dps but need to be burst down? (e.g. butterflies in Ravana, adds in A4). In Ravana, I rarely get a chance to AoE them as people start hitting them as they spawn and nowhere near the boss or each other. I find myself at a loss sometimes if I should bother putting any DoTs on them, Ruin them, PF a single addt, or ignore the blue altogether and just settle for the Moon @.@). I think I even used DF on them instead of Ravana sometimes >_<

This is quite situational. Well in Ravana, I ask the healers to stack in the middle so the adds would get closer to ravana for me to painflare and bane, but if it doesn't go as planned -since some of the adds are ranged- then focus the ones infront of ravana since melee can't get to those because ravana cleaves, dot them with your highest potent dots which are your shortest ones. Also set your pet on the adds, don't leave it on the ravana. Monitor your party's dps. Cover up the part they are lacking in dps: if you notice the moon bursting fast then tridisaster is a waste on it, if you notice the smaller adds being uneven then use tridisaster on those. Also, it's ok to toss painflares on adds because they will do more damage than dots themselves since adds die pretty fast when they are focused by more party members but that's still very dependent on your party's dps. One more thing, on adds phase-- rushing to deathflare is ok if you see so many of the adds gathered/stacked, imo.
Just an off topic tip, ask you whm to time their assize for those adds.

(con't)

3. I try to keep my AF stacks in three, but there are always times when I needed to use an extra AF (or just screwed up) and then got left with 1 stack or 2 stacks. Do you guys let some of the Aethertrail stack(s) fall off to come back up with a clean set of 3?

Well I don't think I understand the question correctly, but try to never let AA fall because you are basically passing on a 10% buff and 400 potency burst damage.

I hope this helps, maybe other smns here can provide more info!

[pandabearcat]

You use painflare to burst down adds that you don't have time to dot up (for instance, Bio > Painflare > Ruin II is a good rotation on those adds).

One thing I have not been able to test, can you bane dots from an invulnerable target to noninvulnerable targets?

I am unable to tell if bane is an attack on the target itself or all the targets surrounding.

[Minorinz]

You use painflare to burst down adds that you don't have time to dot up (for instance, Bio > Painflare > Ruin II is a good rotation on those adds).

One thing I have not been able to test, can you bane dots from an invulnerable target to noninvulnerable targets?

I am unable to tell if bane is an attack on the target itself or all the targets surrounding.

if you are talking about how the t12 mechanic worked before they fixed it, yeah it does and if you are having t2/a2 in mind then yeah it should work.

[Aerya]

Hello!

I'm currently a lvl 60 PLD and I would like to take one of my DPS classes up to lvl 60 too.

I have almost all DPS classes at lvl 50 (except BLM and MCH) and my former main was the BRD (but I don't like the changes to the class, so I don't think I'll take it to lvl 60). I'm really interested in the Summoner... Could someone tell me what the 50-60 changes feel like for this class? How does the SMN play now? Is it fun and/or useful in a team? Back in 2.x I didn't really like the lack of burst, which made some content a lot harder for the team... I've heard this was fixed?

[Minorinz]

You use painflare to burst down adds that you don't have time to dot up (for instance, Bio > Painflare > Ruin II is a good rotation on those adds).

One thing I have not been able to test, can you bane dots from an invulnerable target to noninvulnerable targets?

I am unable to tell if bane is an attack on the target itself or all the targets surrounding.

Oh yeah you can, T10 boss goes inv when he summons adds I always bane from him and it works fine. I kept thinking you meant inv debuff.